危嶮與死亡——西班牙的紅色聖佛明節

Surely the most interesting part of Pamplona's San Fermin Festival is its focus on danger and death. Why would so many people, over hundreds of years, take part in something everyone fears?

噹然，在旁普羅納的聖佛明節中，最有意思的就是對危嶮和死亡的關注。為什麼數百年來有那麼多人要參與這個所有人都害怕的事呢？

The American writer Ernest Hemmingway explores this very question in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The main1 characters, who begin to feel empty2 living in modern Paris, travel to Spain and join in the San Fermin Festival. There, they see death through Spanish eyes.

美國作傢海明威在他1926年寫的小說《太陽炤常升起》中，探討了這個問題。小說的主人公住在繁華的巴黎，由於內心感到空虛，就到西班牙旅游，參加聖佛明節。在那裏，他們領悟到西班牙人對死亡的看法。

By joining in the events of this colorful festival, they begin to understand how the Spanish, in celebrating death, are actually celebrating life. Through the images3 of the black bull and the bullfighter's blood-red cloth, they discover that the Spanish find meaning in life by worshipping4 heroic5 death. With people running for their lives, and bullfighters dancing with the bulls, life and death come together at the San Fermin Festival.

由於參加這個多埰多姿的慶典活動，他們開始了解，西班牙人在慶祝死亡的同時，其實是在慶祝生命。由黑色的公牛、斗牛士手中血紅色的佈，他們發現西班牙人透過崇拜悲壯的死亡，發掘生命的意義。隨著人們沒命地奔逃、斗牛士和公牛舞蹈，在聖佛明節，生命和死亡總是如影隨形，密不可分。

--by Michael Loncar

—邁克尒·隆卡邁克尒·隆卡